Do You Really Know How To Ride A Bicycle?

There is a tendency to think that once you get so that you can ride around the block without falling down, you've "mastered" riding a bicycle, and know all you need to know about basic riding technique. Like most skills, however, there are levels of mastery, and a cyclist who has learned and practiced good technique will be a safer, more effective cyclist.

How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall?

If you are one of the many cyclists who, despite years of experience, have never overcome bad starting/stopping habits, it is not to late to improve your technique. These approaches may feel funny at first, but once you get used to them, you'll see how much better they work...Practice! Practice! Practice!
Emily Weidman demonstrates...

If you have not learned to do this, take the time to practice. It may sound difficult, but it isn't as hard as it sounds. Once you get used to it, it will become second nature. You will become a better, safer cyclist, because you will be able to bring your bicycle quickly up to a speed that allow you to ride without wobbling.

Starting

Many experienced cyclists have never taken the time to learn the correct way to mount and dismount, and their bad habits put them at risk when they try to start up in traffic, or up hill.

One of the most basic skills of cycling is the ability to ride straight, without wobbling from side to side. It is not possible for most cyclists to do this until they reach a certain minimum speed, typically in the range of 5-8 miles per hour (8-13 kph). Learning correct starting technique will enable you to reach this critical maneuvering speed sooner, so you will spend less time with your bicycle under only partial control.

Correct Basic Starting Technique

It is easiest to learn basic starting and stopping technique using flat pedals. Once you have mastered the basics, then if you like, you may move on to toeclips and straps, or to clipless pedals and cleated shoes.

Stand astride the frame, both feet on the ground. Most people get to this position by swinging a leg over the saddle, but if you have low handlebars, you can do it over the bars as well. If you have a "lady's" bike or other bike with a low frame, you may be able to lift your foot over the frame. It sometimes helps to lean the bike to the side before straddling it.

Do not try to sit on the saddle while the bike is stopped.

Hook your less skillful foot under a pedal and rotate the pedals backwards so that the pedal is 45 degrees forward of straight up. If the bicycle has a coaster brake, you'll have to lift the rear wheel off the ground and rotate the pedals forward instead.

Put your foot on the high pedal, then press down hard. This will simultaneously:

Let you use the pedal as a step to lift yourself high enough to get onto the saddle...and:

Some Wrong Ways:

The Cowboy Mount is popular among cyclists who learned to ride on a bicycle that was too large for them. This dubious technique involves standing next to the bike, putting one foot on a pedal, then swinging the other leg over the saddle while the bicycle is in motion.

The cowboy mount places the rider's weight on the bicycle while it is leaning over at a sharp angle. This puts considerable lateral stress on the frame and the wheels. Bicycle wheels, in particular, are not designed to withstand serious sideways stresses, and this poor mounting technique is very hard on your wheels.

The Shuffle Start involves standing on the low pedal, and trying to get the bike into motion by pushing off against the ground with the other foot...you can't get up to maneuvering speed quickly this way, and you can't get started uphill with this technique.

The Flying Leap is a less common technique, consisting of running alongside the bicycle, then jumping up onto the saddle. This is sometimes done by riders in a hurry, but it is tricky and risky. Cyclocross racers use it to carry the bicycle over obstacles. The "Advanced Credit" section at the end of this article covers the Flying Leap, in case you have a burning desire to learn it. Most cyclists have no need for it.

Stopping

Stopping is not so much of a challenge for most cyclists, but there are still some bad habits to lose and good habits to teach yourself.

Some wrong ways

The Tricycle Dismount places both feet on the ground. This is normal on a child's tricycle, a low-saddle BMX bicycle or a recumbent bicycle, but as Emily shows in the video it is very awkward on a conventional bicycle if the saddle is properly adjusted. As a result, many bicyclists ride with the saddle too low for efficient pedaling, or fumble when stopping as Emily did.

The Cyclocross Dismount is the only way to dismount from a bicycle whose top tube is too high to straddle. The cyclist stands on a pedal and swings the opposite leg over the back of the bicycle to place a foot on the ground -- ending up standing next to the bicycle -- and then has to mount again to restart. With a coaster brake, weighting a pedal skids the rear wheel. This dismount only makes sense in a race where it is necessary to run carrying the bicycle, and is described in the "Extra Credit" section at the end of this article.

Shift Down First

If your bike has derailer gears, it can only be shifted while in motion. It is very worthwhile to cultivate the habit of shifting into a fairly low gear as you glide to a stop, so that you will be in a suitable gear for starting up again. Usually, this will involve shifting the rear derailer onto the lowest (largest) sprocket, and the front onto the middle chainwheel if the bicycle has triple chainwheels. Naturally, in an emergency, panic stop, you'll just stop, and not worry about the gear, but for normal, controlled stops, you can teach yourself to do this downshifting automatically. If you use toe clips and straps or clip-in pedals, it's easy to lift the rear wheel and pedal forward with one foot on the ground while shifting down.

You may need to do a bit of experimenting to find the most suitable starting gear on your bike.

Too low a gear will cause the pedal to descend to fast to give support as you step up.

Too high a gear will not get the bike accelerating fast enough to reach balancing speed.

When To Put Your Foot Down

Perhaps arising from a desire to assist the inadequate brakes with shoe leather, some cyclists have a tendency to put a foot down too soon, which may be painful.

When stopping, you need to rest your weight on one pedal, (which will necessarily be at the bottom of its range, if your bicycle is equipped with a freewheel.) Your other foot shouldn't touch the ground until the bicycle is pretty much stopped.

If you put your foot down while the bike is still moving along, here's what happens: You're already slowing down with the brakes, and the brakes are slowing the entire bike/rider unit. If you put a foot down and transfer your weight to it, the brake then only needs to slow the bicycle, which is much lighter than you. The amount of braking force that was slowing the bike and rider at a controllable rate can bring the bicycle alone to an abrupt halt. Meanwhile, your body's momentum keeps you in motion, until you whack a delicate part of your body on the handlebar stem of your suddenly stopped bicycle...ouch!

Extra Credit: Cyclocross Techniques

The flying leap start and the cyclocross dismount, mentioned earlier, are tricky and risky; also, the cyclist steps off to the side of the bicycle between stops and starts. That is not exactly the greatest idea on a group ride or in mixed traffic. These techniques do make sense if the cyclist must carry the bicycle: a cyclocross racer jumping over an obstacle, a police officer running up stairs to pursue a suspect, and so forth. Kris Westwood from Performance Cycle gives a good, quick introduction to cyclocross techniques in the video below.

Starting and stopping a bicycle are such fundamental operations - after learning to balance - that it's surprising that they are not taught routinely!